Metlinks OTW : Week 9, 30.10.09

As October turns into November, the autumn rain tapping lightly on the window, this weekend on la Toussaint we’ll take a moment to remember those who lived before us. And for American expats, Happy Halloween!

Eating out with foodies can be a trying experience (not always, it just can be). We’ll make you wait until photographic evidence is taken before you can eat, and we’re probably attracting plenty of weird looks from the other diners too. Still, culinary photography can be rewarding. Case in point – the very first International Festival of Culinary Photography! OK, these folks are professionals but the topic remains the same – beautiful food-related photographs. The festival runs from 6th to 15th November at Bercy Village.

BBC correspondent, Vincent Dowd took the “Van Gogh Express” to Auvers-sur-Oise just outside of Paris, to follow the footsteps of the famous post-impressionist master.

Boris Johnson (Mayor of London) wants to build something to rival the Eiffel Tower. Seen as an ambitious vanity project, we’ll see what the winning design will be in the next couple of weeks. And if it’ll be in place by the time Olympics 2012 starts.

Marché d’Art de la Bastille is currently underway and will remain in place at Place de la Bastille, Place de l’Arsenal, Boulevard Bourdon and Boulevard de la Bastille until Sunday 1st Nov. Ticket costs €8 and hundreds of artists are displaying their works for your perusal, and hopefully, purchase.

How well do you really know Paris? Get your hand on this book and take the 400-questions quiz. (I need to get me a copy.) In the mean time you can try this simple quiz from National Geographic.

Hmmmm, a Hamlet-inspired cabaret… Ham. & Ex by Matthias Langhoff will be performing from 5th November to 12th December at Odéon Theatre. To go or not to go, that is the question.

I may have been watching Ratatouille once too often. After seeing this blogpost on Etablissements Julien Aurouze I pegged it right away as the pest shop featured in the animated movie. A quick google said I was right, yay!

Versailles was the centre of political power in France under the reign of King Louis XIV but it is only now that the very first exhibition of the Sun King is being held at the palace which he once held supreme. Some 300 artworks have been gathered to show the king as a leader in war, a patron of arts, a defender of the church and of course, a royal who lived lavishly and in style. “Louis XIV, l’homme et le roi” runs until 7th February 2010, and opens daily except Mondays (and although there’s no mention, I believe it’ll be closed at Christmas and New Year too).

2 Comments so far

I enjoy the links you put up on here each week. It’s a nicely chosen selection.

It’s funny that everyone describes this proposed tower in London as a vanity project then compares it to the Eiffel tower. Does this mean that Gustav’s tower was the ultimate vanity project? At the same time, with the amount of tourists and money it has attracted over the years, and the visual identity it has brought to the city, I guess no-one would begrudge it to him today. Having said that, the pictures for Boris Johnson’s tower in London do look particularly bad.

Personally, I think most monuments built are vanity projects. The legacy to show the power that one yields over a city at a particular point in time. ;-)

Perhaps the English are being more critical now than ever, following the expenses scandal of the politicians and given the climate of a recession, no tax payers want their hard earned money to be spent on what they perceive as frivolous and unnecessary expenditure. And the picture does look bad – I hope the winning design is not that one!